Pope Francis: the worst of sins does not diminish the identity of children of God

Pope Francis recalls that “the most vile of our sins does not disfigure our identity in the eyes of God: we continue to be his children, loved by Him, cherished by Him and considered precious” in the prologue of a book on spiritual accompaniment to the condemned. to death in the United States.

In the text, published by Vatican Newsthe Pontiff reflects on the mercy of God, which due to its characteristic of infinity “can also scandalize”, in the same way that Jesus did to his contemporaries when approaching sinners and prostitutes.

In this sense, he maintains that the author of A Christian on death row. My commitment to the condemnedDale Recinella, also “faces criticism, counterclaims and rejection for his spiritual commitment alongside the condemned.”

Racinella was a successful lawyer who since 1988 has spiritually accompanied those condemned to death awaiting their final destination in the penitentiaries of the state of Florida.

“Dale Recinella has understood and testifies with his life, every time he crosses the door of a prison, especially the one he calls ‘the house of death’, that the love of God is unlimited and without measure,” the Pope emphasizes. .

Regarding his work, he adds that “his commitment as a lay chaplain, in a place as inhuman as death row, is a living and passionate testimony of the school of God’s infinite mercy.”

The work of spiritual accompaniment to those condemned to capital punishment is, in the opinion of the Pontiff, especially complex, “very difficult, risky and arduous to carry out” which is in contact with evil in its three aspects: the evil done to the victims , and that cannot be repaired, the evil experienced by the condemned who knows he is doomed to certain death and which, “with the practice of capital punishment, is instilled in society.”

The death penalty is a “dangerous poison”

In this sense, Pope Francis has insisted on denouncing the death penalty, which “is not at all the solution to the violence that can befall innocent people. Executions, far from providing justice, feed a feeling of revenge that becomes a dangerous poison for the body of our civilized societies.”

“States should be concerned about giving prices the opportunity to really change lives, instead of investing money and resources in repressing them, as if they were human beings who no longer deserve to live and who must be gotten rid of,” he adds.

In a letter to the Jubilee to which the entire Catholic Church is called in 2025, Pope Francis proposes that it be an occasion for the commitment of all believers to “request with an unequivocal voice the abolition of the death penalty, a practice that, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church, ‘it is inadmissible because it violates the inviolability and dignity of the person!’”

The death penalty in the Catechism of the Catholic Church

In 2018, Pope Francis authorized an important change in the wording of the number 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church referring to the death penalty.

In the original wording it was expressed that the Church contemplated “recourse to the death penalty, if this were the only possible way to effectively defend human lives from the unjust aggressor”, with the warning that modern states have means to avoid reaching to that extreme, which is why the authorities were urged to use bloodless means.

In the text approved by Pope Francis, this teaching is collected and reformulated, noting that “for a long time the recourse to the death penalty by legitimate authority, after due process, was considered an appropriate response to the seriousness of some crimes and an admissible, although extreme, means for the protection of the common good.”

At the same time, it is added that “today the awareness is increasingly alive that the dignity of the person is not lost even after having committed very serious crimes. Furthermore, a new understanding has spread about the meaning of criminal sanctions by the State. In short, more effective detention systems have been implemented, which guarantee the necessary defense of citizens, but which, at the same time, do not deprive the prisoner of the possibility of definitive redemption.”

Consequently, it is concluded that “the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible, because it violates the inviolability and dignity of the person’ and is determinedly committed to its abolition throughout the world.” ”.